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Welcome! Artfully Musing is a blog dedicated to sharing art and the techniques and products used. I'll be showcasing collage, altered and mixed media art as well as miniature. I hope you'll check back often and are inspired. Thanks for visiting! Laura

Friday, November 29, 2013

Here come sassy ladies in
their fur coats and baby it’s cold outside!
I imagined that these ladies are out shopping, meeting friends and
having a great time in the wintry holiday weather.

This piece is made from a
door album with the pages hinged together to create an accordion folded
display. I love using architecture for a
backdrop. By hinging the doors together
rather than assembling them as a book, it allows for the use of large dimensional
embellishments, plus you can see everything at once. I’m thinking this would make a great display
on a mantel piece or bookshelf.

I also decided to go with
nontraditional holiday colors and a design that was more winter oriented as I
can image leaving this up beyond Christmas.
I took my color inspiration from the door book and the Glistening 6x6paper pad with its blue, grey, tan and cream color scheme; a perfect way to
show off lots of snowflakes.

NEW COLLAGE SHEET

You’ll find the sassy ladies
I used on my new collage sheet titled “Baby It’s Cold Outside”. As always you can find this and my other
collage sheets and digital image sets at Alpha Stamps.

Design Details and Paper Embellishment
Tutorials

In addition to walking you
through the construction and design of each of the doors, I will also cover how
I created the paper embellishments.

The size of each door is
approximately 10’5” x 7.25”. The set
comes with six doors and each door has a different design on each side. My first challenge was to choose the sides I
wanted to use for the front and to narrow it down to 5 doors (I like odd
numbers). Next, I laid them out in order
and marked the placement of the hinges. Using paper weights helped keep the doors
from shifting as I marked the holes. I
placed the hinges so that they covered up two of the three holes in each
door. I used embellishments to cover up
the remaining hole.

I punched the holes and
attached the hinges to the doors with brads.
To dress up the hinges I added a brass snowflake charm to the brads
(before inserting them into the holes).
I only added the charms to the brads that would be seen after all of the
embellishing.

The bulkiest embellishments I
used were bottle brush trees. Before attaching them to the
door, I cut away almost half of the base and the bristles on the back of the
tree. These mods allowed the trees to
sit flush against the door.

To make the ladies pop, I
used a frame and paper cutting technique.
First, I resized and printed a frame from my Antique Frames digital image set. The frame is
round in shape but I enlarged it and stretched it into an oval. Next, I cut two different pieces of pattern
paper from the Glistening paper pad. The
pieces are slightly smaller than the frame.
One piece serves as the background (tan and white snowflakes) and the
other serves as the piece that curls out of the frame (blue grey snowflakes).

Using an X-acto knife, I
precut lines in the center of the blue/grey paper to facilitate tearing. Only cut the center section of the paper and
not towards the edge where the fame will cover the paper.

Next, I flipped the blue/grey
paper over and glued it to the tan/white piece.
Glue only around the edges of the paper.

Glue the frame to the paper.

Tear back the pieces of the
blue grey paper. Tear off the excess at
the ends and curl the paper over the frame.
I also inked the edges of the paper.

Now the frame is ready to attach
the images of the ladies. I finished
dressing up the piece by adding the miniature pine cones and ribbon. Also notice that this door has openings cut
in the top which allowed me to attach a clock to the
backside of the door.

This was one of my favorite
doors because so much of it is cutout.
On the backside of the door I attached a scene of blue curtains and a
table from the Fully Furnished digital image set. On the table
is a Christmas tree. This is one of the
tree charms you saw me use for the Advent Calendar project. I used foam
core tape on the window scene to separate it from the door adding depth and
creating space to accommodate the tree charm.

The swirls at the bottom are
painted blue then coated in Twinklets Diamond Dust (one of my favorite
products) using Glossy Accents.

The wreath and gold bird at
the bottom are from my Bejeweled collage sheet. I added depth
to the jewels in the wreath by applying Glossy Accent.

Of all of the doors this one
is probably my favorite design. I think
it is because of all of the snowflakes.
Some of the snowflakes and the birds are from the new collage sheet. Again I’ve used a frame from my Antiques Frame Digital image set to accent this lovely lady.

One type of snowflake I used
was made from chipboard. I painted the snowflakes
blue and coated them in Diamond Dust (using Glossy Accents) to give them
sparkle.

The tassel at the bottom is
one that I made from the paper pack.
Below is a quick video showing you how to make a paper tassel.

I attached several different
types of snowflakes to this door including the paper snowflake sprays before
attaching the image of the lady with the hatbox. After attaching her, I added more snowflakes
to finish the door.

The snowflake looking sprays
are made from paper. Below is a short
video on how to make them.

This is probably my favorite
door as I love its color and style and of course the cutout at the top. The sassy lady sitting on the hatboxes in the
snow is perhaps waiting for someone to come home and let her in? To this door and the first door I attached
chipboard lanterns. The candles in the
lantern are made from beads and the flame is yellow paint. The snowflake sequins are attached using
Glossy Accents. I used my finger to
apply paint to the raised areas of the wreath and attached gold beads and a
reindeer button.

On the backside of the door
behind the cutout I attached the grill work piece that came from the transparency version of the Round Things collage sheet.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

I am so behind on posting some of the art pieces I made this past summer. With the big carnival event for Halloween and then jumping right in to fall and winter art I've been crazy busy the last few months. The overall size of this piece is 5" x 2 1/2".

Monday, November 25, 2013

How about decorating a round
paper mache box in a fall theme and using it as a treasure box or as part
of a centerpiece.

The topper is made from 3 chipboard leaves that serve as decoration and
also as a handle to lift the lid from the box.
Although I used leaves, you could use this technique for lots of other chipboard
shapes.

How to Make the Leaf Topper

First, paper or paint your
leaves.The leaves below are undecorated
as they are just for demonstration purposes but you will want to decorate yours
first.When papering items that don’t
have straight edges I use sandpaper to help remove the excess paper.

Cut two of the leaves in
half.I inked the edges of the chipboard
after they were papered and cut.Because
the stems of the leaves are so narrow, I cut them off.Depending on the shape you are using you
might want to cut something off of the bottom of the shape if it is narrow like
the stem of the leaves.

Paint or paper your box
lid.

Mark three cut lines at the
center of your box lid as pictured below (of course yours will be papered and
or painted) and use an X-acto knife to cut the lines.This is where you will be inserting the
leaves into the box lid.The length of
your lines depends on the shape you are using and how far you want to insert
the shapes into the box lid.I inserted
the leaves I used about 1/2” into the box lid.

Insert the full leaf
first. Next, insert a half leaf and glue
it the full leaf where the two meet.Continue inserting and gluing the half leaves. You are reassembling the cut leaves with each
other but with the full in between. Note: when working with a shape like the
leaf where each side of the leaf is not exactly the same, make sure that when
you glue the half leaves in place you are gluing each side of the same leaf
across from each other and in between the full leaf.

Once all of the leaves are in
place and the glue has dried, you might want to add a little glue to the part
of the leaves that are inserted in the box (inside the lid) to keep them from
being pulled out when you use them to lift the lid.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

I have another altered bottle
to share with you and this time it is a perfume bottle necklace. My friend Betty gave me a bunch of fabulous mini
perfume bottles. To thank her, I’ve make
her this necklace out of one of the bottles.

Just like the fall bottle in
my previous post I used Gilder’s Paste (Inca Gold) to color the glass. The brass flowers and leaves are colored with
combinations of Ranger Metal Patina Paints and accented with microbeads.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

This is a project that has
been sitting around forever waiting to be finished. The inspiration came from the pine cone stopper
which I found at Crate and Barrel about 3 years ago. It’s a Christmas ornament which was only 99
cents and when I saw it I thought what a great stopper it would make. The pine cone is covered in microbeads.

I colored the gold brass
leaves with a combination of Patina & Copper Gilders Paste and
Ranger Patina Metal Paint (the color is Amethyst). I bent them some to make them wrap around the
bottle. I also added something called “Dazzlers”
to the bottom leaf. They are like
glitter but a little larger. I purchase
them from the Glitter Art Institute who makes all kinds of fabulous glitter
products.

The copper leaves and swirls
are metallic copper sticker. You’ve seen
me use the gold and silver versions on many projects.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Just in
time for this Christmas season is a fun festive Christmas
Tree Advent Calendar project. Last
year I showed you how to make an Advent Calendar out
of matchboxes
and this year it’s out of chipboard boxes.
The boxes are a 2”x2”cube, which gives you lots of space to fill them
with goodies. The overall size of the
calendar is 19” tall (with ribbon) and 9” wide.

The Digital
Image Set includes all of the images in collage sheet as well as the
ornaments without the numbers; making them useful for other Christmas themed
projects.

GIVEAWAY

The
winner of the giveaway will receive either the Advent
Calendar Collage Sheet or the Digital
Image Set; your choice. If you would
like to participate in the giveaway, leave a comment on this post or send me an
email by clicking on the Email Me button in the right hand column of the
blog. Random.org will select a winner on
Sunday November 17th. Please
make sure I have a way to contact you if you win.

TUTORIALTHE BASE

For the base I used a paper Mache
box. This comes from the same set of
boxes you saw me use in the Halloween
Carnival projects. The
boxes come in sets of 3. I used the
large one which is 5 ½” x 3”.

Paint or ink the edges of
the box. I used a gold stamp pad to ink
the edges. You will be using only the
bottom of the box and not the lid.

Cover the box with
decorative paper. I used the Silver
& Gold 6x6 Paper Pad. I also
re-inked the edges after attaching the paper

Embellish the sides of the
box. I used images from the Advent
Calendar Collage sheet to decorate the box.
To make the Christmas ornaments look more dimensional I added Glossy
Accents. I used metallic stickers to
bring in a touch of gold. Around the
base of the box I added Mini Pine & Berry Garland that I braded with Tiny
Red Tree Garland. I used E6000 glue to
attach the garland to the box. The pine garland
is wired so it was easy to braid with the red bead garland.

To
create a tree shape you will be assembling circles of boxes. The boxes
are 2 inches square. Each circle
will have one fewer box then the circle before it. The tree is made up of 5 circles with
7,6,5,4, & 3 boxes; adding up to 25 boxes corresponding to 25 days. An additional box on the top makes the tree
look symmetrical and accommodates attaching garland.

Assemble 26 boxes.
25 for each day and one for the top of the tree.

Decorating the Boxes

Ink or paint the outside edges of the boxes. I inked the edges with a gold stamp pad as it coordinated with the papers I used. I also inked the main tab on the lid with the gold stamp pad.

Paper all 6 sides of the boxes. I cut pieces of paper that were 1 15/16” x 1
15/16” so that you would see just a little of the gold inking on the edges. Before attaching the paper, I laid out my
boxes in order to make sure the patterns in the paper would be randomly
distributed throughout the tree. If the
paper has pattern with a direction, keep that in mind as you glue the paper to
the boxes. I inked the edges of the paper
before gluing it to the boxes.

Optional – Paper the insides of the boxes. I decided not to paper the inside as I felt
that the color of the box worked well with the papers.

Decided which way you want your boxes to open. They can be all the same or different. I choose to have them open from left to right
(since I’m right handed).

Once you have your boxes papered, glue the Christmas
Ornament Days to the lid of each box (if you are using my images). Just as with the papers I decided to randomly
distribute the days on the tree. Of
course you could choose to put them in order.
Also be mindful of the direction you want your box to open so that the ornament
day image doesn’t end up going in the wrong direction. I laid my boxes out in order with the lids
facing the correct direction and decided on the order of the days before
attaching the images.

Attach the pulls.

I used Acrylic Christmas Themed Beads that coordinated
with the paper. There are five different
shapes (2 different trees, an angel, a bell, and a snowflake).

I jazzed up the snowflake bead by adding a brass snowflake.

I attached the beads using a headpin and eye pin. To determine the placement of the beads I
took into consideration the length of the bead and where the inside tabs were
located. The reason for considering the
inside tab, is that when you loop the eye pin to keep it from pulling through
the lid, it creates bulk in the back of the lid. If this bulk is where the tab the lid won’t
completely close.

I created a template with a hole so that I could consistently
mark the bead placement for each box.

Assembling the Tree

Cut 25 pieces of paper 1” x 1 ½” long (I used paper from
the paper pad). I would recommend using
cardstock as it is a bit sturdier and has color on both sides. Score and fold the pieces of paper long ways
down the middle. These pieces of paper
will be used to connect the boxes together.

Use the paper piece to glue together 7 boxes. Attach half of the paper to the back edge of
one box and the other half to the back edge of another box. Continue until all 7 boxes are connected into
a circle.

Continue connecting boxes into 5 rings with each ring
having one fewer box. You should end up
with rings of 7,6,5,4, & 3 boxes; adding up to 25 boxes corresponding to 25
days. Use an additional box on the top
to help make the tree more symmetrical and to accommodate hanging the garland.

Glue the 7 box circle to the top of base. Center the circle on the base. Even though the boxes are connected with
paper they are still flexible enough to adjust until they are centered on the
base.

Once you have the boxes centered on the base I recommend
adding some weight to keep them in place while the glue dries. I used a piece of chipboard and a paper
weight.

Next, glue the 6 box circle on top of the 7 box
circle. Again apply weight to keep the
circle in place once you have it were you want it. Since each circle has one less box than the
last circle you will need to adjust each circle so that it is in the center of
the previous circle. The boxes will not
line up but sit slightly shifted to one side or the other of the circle of boxes
below.

Continue adding each circle of boxes to the next.

Decorating the Tree

The last and 26th box goes on the very top. I covered it with paper and glued the lid shut. I glued a small wooden skewer into the top of the box. The skewer gave me a way to anchor the garland.

The garland is actual two different garlands; Mini Pine & Berry Garland and Gold Star Tinsel Garland. Both garlands are wired so it was easy to braid them together and bend them as they cascade down the tree.

I made a loop with the garland at one end and glued it onto the wooden skewer using E6000 glue. Once I had the garland in place, I topped the tree with a Green Crinkle Paper Ribbon. The ribbon hides the wooden skewer.

I draped the garland down the sides of the tree, bending
and gluing it at various points on the boxes using E6000 glue. I draped it down the tree rather than
wrapping it around as it would have blocked the box lids.

I also added Lacquered Holly & Barry clusters to
various boxes. This particular assembly
of the boxes gives you lots of ledges on each level of boxes to add
embellishments.